AIG Is Selling One Of Its 'Crown Jewels' To A Group Of Chinese Investors

AIG has
agreed to sell 90% of its airplane leasing business to a group of
Chinese investors in a $5.8 billion deal,
the New York Times reports. The investors include the New
China Trust Company, the China Aviation Industrial Fund and P3
Investments.

The American insurance giant has been selling off assets since it
was bailed out during the financial crisis in 2008. But this sale
is important for a few reasons:

The company for sale The International Lease Finance
Corporation (ILFC), has been around fo 40 years and is one of the
biggest airplane leasing companies in the world. It has 200
airlines customers at in 80 countries and has over 900 planes.

This will be one of the biggest acquisitions of an American
company by Chinese investors in history. That said, expect a lot
of scrutiny from Chinese and American regulators.

A few more things you should know — AIG CEO Bob Benmosche will
keep a seat on ILFC and the AIG will retain a 10% in IFLC.

AIG will also record a loss of about $4.4 billion here, and a
part of that is related to a $1.8 billion accounting charge from
using tax assets in the deal.